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Gaithersburg parents press MCPS to keep Fields Road elementary with Crown High, oppose Crown as a temporary holding school
Summary
Dozens of parents, students and educators urged Montgomery County Public Schools to modify Option H so Fields Road Elementary feeds permanent Crown High School, arguing proximity, diversity, capacity and safety favor that change. Several speakers warned against repurposing Crown as a temporary holding school for the Damascus rebuild and called for transparency in MCPS enrollment data.
Dozens of parents, students and educators addressed the Montgomery County Board of Education to ask that Fields Road Elementary be included in a modified Option H so that the newly built Crown High School serves its immediate neighborhood rather than being used as a temporary holding school.
Speakers from the Fields Road and Gaithersburg communities said proximity, safety and equity support the change. Debbie Mehta, PTA president at Fields Road, said adding the school to Crown would ‘‘move the needle positively in all 4 FAA factors we all value’’ and stressed that Crown High School is literally on Fields Road (address cited in testimony). Emily Gonju, a Fields Road parent, said the neighborhood ‘‘is one of the most racially, religiously, and socioeconomically diverse cities in America’’ and urged that any new map preserve that diversity.
Community advocates emphasized safety and stability for students during the planned Damascus High School rebuild. Several student speakers, including Julia Fitzpatrick, described visiting Damascus and called the building ‘‘old and unsafe,’’ and one nine‑year‑old testified, ‘‘Please don't make Crown a holding school,’’ saying repeated moves and long bus rides harm children’s learning and social lives.
Some speakers raised planning and transparency concerns. Jerry Joseph, a Gaithersburg resident, noted a 2006 Crown Farm annexation agreement the community says promised land and a public high school for Gaithersburg; Leonard Incognito, a Crown community member, alleged MCPS had presented different datasets to the Interagency Committee on School Construction (IAC) in 2025 than in 2021 and said, ‘‘Crown High School was approved using 1 methodology. It cannot be repurposed using another.’’ The superintendent responded during Q&A that enrollment methodology had not changed but that actual enrollment changed, and staff pointed attendees to the CIP appendix and the county planning office as sources for projection data.
Board members acknowledged the volume of public input and asked administration to package and publish the utilization and demographic tables requested by community members. The board described the boundary process as iterative: released options collect feedback, staff may incorporate popular features into a final recommendation, and the board will deliberate on a recommended map in subsequent meetings.
No formal vote on boundaries was taken. Public comment on this item will continue during the board’s ongoing boundary process; staff said final recommendations and further hearings will follow the public feedback period.
